For bishops, change afoot

Annual assembly makes addressing poverty a priority

Published 6:33 pm, Friday, November 15, 2013

Baltimore

The nation's Roman Catholic bishops this week chose as their leaders two prelates whose pastoral approach evokes the new tone for the church set by Pope Francis.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., the new president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, has a master's degree in social work, took care of his brother with Down syndrome and said the "most important time" he has ever spent was the 12 years he served as pastor in a parish.

He succeeds Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, who finished his three-year term.

The bishops elected Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston from a slate of 10 candidates in the bellwether contest for vice president. In the runoff vote between two finalists, they passed over Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia.

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The bishops customarily elevate their vice president to president. Kurtz had served in that role under Dolan, so his election was a return to a tradition overturned three years ago when Dolan prevailed against the sitting vice president.

The vote Tuesday came a day after an address by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the Vatican's ambassador to the United States, who spoke of the pope's vision for the church.

Francis' effect on American bishops is emerging gradually. The deeply traditionalist body of more than 250 voting prelates has been consumed in recent years with fighting gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act's mandate that employers provide access to contraception coverage.

Critics maintain the bishops have alienated gay Catholics and progressives while using relatively little of their political firepower to battle rising poverty.

Still, in the bishops' annual general assembly in Baltimore this week, unmistakable signs emerged that change is afoot.

In his address to members, Dolan, tacked away from the theme that his dominated his three-year tenure, the contraception mandate under Obamacare, which bishops view as an assault on religious liberty at home. Instead, he talked about Christian persecution abroad.

Later, a retired archbishop stood and asked whether the bishops could add addressing poverty to their stated priorities for the next three years, given Pope Francis' urgent calls to Catholics to become "a poor church for the poor." The other bishops burst into applause.

Chaput, an influ-ential traditionalist who has been critical of Francis' lack of outreach to conservatives, surprised observers when he said he would put online a Vatican questionnaire dealing with controversial topics such as gay relationships, remarriage and contraception.

The Vatican's detailed -request for -wide input, itself unusual, is in preparation for worldwide bishops' synods on family and marriage in Rome in 2014 and 2015.